AT THE PRESIDENT'S SPRING Forum on
May 2, 2006, three Seattle Pacific University
faculty and staff members were honored for
excellence. Staff Council recognized Laurie
Mendes and Frank Kinard as Staff Members
of the Year, and SPU students named Rod
Stiling the 2006 Professor of the Year.

Mendes, administrative assistant for science
and engineering, first came to Seattle Pacific as
an eager freshman in 1974. “My heart was set
on long-distance running with coaches Doris
Heritage and Ken Foreman,” she says.

After graduation, with a nursing degree in
hand, Mendes worked for 17 years as an
obstetric nurse. In 2002, she returned to her
alma mater, accepting her current position in
SPU’s Otto Miller Hall.

The best part about her job is interacting
with students, says the Staff Member of the
Year. “Students come to my office in moments
of stress,” she explains. “They may be having
trouble registering for classes, or sometimes
they just need a piece of candy and a minute to
sit down. I enjoy being able to help or lend a
sympathetic ear.”

Mendes, who battled breast cancer successfully
in 2005, says she’s grateful to be working
for Seattle Pacific. “I may not be able to run
anymore, but during my second stint at SPU,
I’ve learned firsthand what it means to be part
of a powerful, prayerful community.”

Says colleague Lindsey Peterson, office
manager in the School of Business and Economics,
“Even in the midst of the challenges in
her life, Laurie has been eager to make positive
contributions through her work at SPU.”

If Kinard’s life experiences were documented
on TV, they might look a lot like
those of Jack Bauer (Kiefer
Sutherland) on Fox’s hit
show 24. After all, the career
of this Staff Member of the
Year has taken him on many
adventures, around the world
and back.

Beginning his career in the
Army, Kinard worked as a
military police investigator in Germany —
chasing a terrorist group that was targeting
U.S. military personnel — followed by
counterterrorism work in Panama. Kinard
later became a bodyguard qualified to protect
top military personnel and government
cabinet members.

After retiring from the Army in 1995, he
moved to Seattle and became assistant manager
of a Bellevue, Washington, post office.
In 2001, Kinard was hired as Seattle Pacific’s
manager of copying and mailing services.
In less than a year, he improved efficiency in the
Mailing Department and implemented several
cost-saving strategies.

Kinard and his staff deliver up to 2,000
pieces of mail per day — about 1.2 million
pieces per year. And never mind that he’s the
department manager: On busy days, he delivers
mail too.

“Frank ‘walks the walk,’” notes Lucille
Kelley, dean of SPU’s School of Health Sciences.
“I have watched him numerous times as
he pushes mail carts in rain and wind.
He does what he needs to do to get the job
done for SPU.”

“A job is a job, regardless of who has to do
it,” says Kinard of his personal work ethic.
“I will never ask a student to do something
that I won’t do myself.”

A professor may be rewarded in many
ways, but perhaps nothing is as meaningful as
being selected Professor of the Year by
students. That was the honor bestowed on
Stiling, an associate professor of history, by
2005–06 ASSP President Chris Sharpe.

Now in his fifth year at Seattle Pacific,
Stiling’s journey to the University led him
down a few winding roads. He enlisted in the
Navy in 1972 and spent the early years of his
career traveling everywhere from Spain to
Bermuda. After completing graduate studies
at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas,
Stiling decided to pursue a passion for academia,
specifically the intersections between
science, faith, and history.

In 2001, several years after earning a
doctorate in history from the University of
Wisconsin, he accepted a position at Seattle
Pacific. It was an opportunity to teach about
his passion. “History is so critical,” explains
the professor. “If you want to
have insight and understanding
about today, you have to
have insight and understanding
about yesterday.”

Over the years, Stiling
has earned the respect of his
students. “Dr. Stiling is an
amazing professor that
deserves to be recognized,” says Sharpe, one
of Stiling’s former students. “He’s genuinely
committed to every one of his students and
can be seen at basketball games, STUB events,
or anywhere else students are involved.”

But don’t expect this well-loved professor
to take any of the credit. “I like to tell students,
‘I’m not the smartest person in the room,’”
says Stiling with a smile. “’I may have more
data bits on my hard drive, but that’s just
because I’m older.’”